


"I'd Rather..."

by hanyou_elf



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Death Fic, Gen, Shounen-ai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:50:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanyou_elf/pseuds/hanyou_elf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto would rather have Sasuke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	"I'd Rather..."

It's raining the day Uchiha Sasuke comes home to Konoha.

It's a cold and dismal day, shrouded in the grey depths of heavy clouds that just can't stop their mourning. The rain is unending, a premonition of sorts. It stabs through fabric and sends icy fire deep into unsuspecting skin. It's a day for staying in at home. For warm fire in the fire place and cups of hot chocolate, curled up tight with the people you love.

Naruto is not one of those people at home. He is on guard duty, patrolling the city with watchful and suspicious azure eyes. The rain, while cold, is ignorable. And unlike the others who drift around the city in purposeful laziness, he doesn't grumble about the unfairness of duty this evening.

Until his eyes, sharp with years of practice and honing, catch on the slight movement of something broken.

With a slight flare in his chakra, he alerts the others on duty, the five men, and the one in training with him, who have taken upon their shoulders the solemn duty of protecting this most precious of towns. He doesn't let anyone know where he's going, his words have long since dried out. Instead, he heads eagerly out to investigate.

There is a niggling feeling of something familiar. Something so perfect and right and wanted that he can't resist the call.

It could be a trap, and he's aware of that, but it's the reason he's alone. He's nothing. Losing him, in the face of everything else that's gone on, would be nothing, when compared to the men and the women within the city's limits. But this is Sasuke's chakra residue. And that's something that's almost impossible to ignore.

Naruto has never been able to ignore Sasuke.

He stops long before he reaches the figure staggering blindly through the sheets of rain. Even through the dirt and the sluggish crawl of blood down his right arm and temple, through his hair, plastered to this shoulders and beyond, to skin that's ridiculously pale, Naruto would recognize him. It's Sasuke.

Broken. Beautiful and sinewy and far too slender to be healthy, and broken. His eyes, once prized above all else, his eyes are dull and lifeless. It's as though Sasuke sees nothing.

“Name?” he yells. The rush of wind in his ears, the roar of the rain as it batters the earth. It’s too much. This is just another nightmare.

“Uchiha Sasuke,” is the hoarse reply.

“Your purpose?” It hurts to be this facade of strength and uncaring sentry. He’s not supposed to be this model of rigidity. He’s supposed to be laughing, silently. He’s supposed to be in the thick of things, helping others out. Confident in himself.

“I have information. And to turn myself over to the Hokage.”

“Put your hands high, spread apart.”

“I can’t. I can’t lift my right arm.”

“What’d you get yourself into,” Naruto asks softly. It’s to nobody, and he expects no answer, is duly rewarded.

“Naruto?” Sasuke asks softly.

There is the hint of something indefinable in his voice, and Naruto is helpless to respond to it. He just can’t help it. “It’s me, bastard,” he answers with a smile.

-.-.-.-

Yahiko, a newly ranked jounin can only stare in dumbfounded amazement. Naruto understands. It’s not that he doesn’t talk, but this is the most any of them have heard him talk in a long time. “Naruto-san?” he has to ask delicately. As if he can’t believe that this is the person he knows.

“Stay here, Yahiko. I have to do this alone,” Naruto answers, turning to smile slightly at the young jounin.

The thing that Yahiko recognizes though, is that whoever the man approaching is, he doesn’t have long to live.

-.-.-.-

Naruto approaches slowly. He knows that he should immediately arrest Sasuke and take him to Tsunade-sama, but their long history together and the staggering he’d watched were alarming. He wasn’t stupid, at all.

There is something seriously wrong with Sasuke. And Naruto can't figure out just what, yet. And he won't until he's gotten Sasuke close again. As much as he both loved and hated the other when he was around during their genin days, he's missed Sasuke like he's sure he'd miss his right arm. He's come to understand what that means. The love that it means. But he doesn't know what that means for him now.

Because Sasuke's hurt.

And Sasuke's condemned.

"I brought this," Sasuke whispers as he falls to his knees.

A small, awkward shaped black bag falls to the ground beside him. He closes his eyes and falls back, sitting on his heels wearily, barely sitting upright. Naruto catches him, supports him, and pulls him close. He flicks the bag open a bit, just enough to see raven black hair and dried, rust colored blood. And a scraggly hair covered skull.

"Who...?"

"Itachi. Orochimaru." Sasuke pants softly, curls into Naruto. He's completely out of it. And that bothers Naruto. This is how he knows that the pale man is sick: Sasuke doesn't do displays of affection.

"What happened?"

"You're safer," he answers.

Naruto wraps his arms around the too thin body and tries to hide the twitch at the way Sasuke flinches before he clings to Naruto's body. It's sad to see something so proud brought to something so desperate.

He can feel it when Sasuke passes out, his body becomes little more than dead weight. He wraps his arm beneath Sasuke's knees, the bag, open enough to let the rain fall icily in the bag. It is a simple hand signal before he's disappearing from his post and reappearing in Tsunade-sama's office.

-.-.-.-

Tsunade was not amused with random ninja who popped into her office unannounced. She made exception for four people, outside of herself who were allowed to appear- Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Jiraiya, and of course, Shizune.

As she sips her sake, in a pretty tea cup, she's not surprised to feel the burst of Naruto's chakra in the office before he appears, wet and burdened. He throws the bag on the desk, in her direction with disgust on his face and adjusts his grip on his burden.

Tsunade lifts her cloudy eyes, and looks over the wet bundle her favorite ninja carries, and is surprised to see it's a man. And more than that, it's Sasuke.

"Naruto?"

"He's hurt. Or sick. Something," Naruto answers. "Can you help him?"

"Bring him in the back," Tsunade answers. Shock is still running through her body, and the near instant sobriety is startling. She follows the blond boy into the back room, a secret hidden room that allows the Hokage privacy to rest, without being too far from the center of the action.

She watches as he lays the Uchiha heir out, gently uncurling him gently. He arranges Sasuke so he's as comfortable as he can possibly be, without asking for permission. Naruto is so very obvious. And so very sad. "He just staggered into the neutral zone."

"He doesn't look good," Tsunade offers. She knows it isn't much, but she's not going to lie to him.

"I know. Just, make him comfortable?"

"You know when the ANBU feel him in here, they'll take him into custody as soon as possible. And as much as you might hate it..."

"I know!" Naruto growls viciously. "I know he's condemned. I know that they're going to put him to death, but I think we should at least find out what happened."

"Okay," Tsunade placates. "I just wanted you to be realistic," she sighs fondly, knuckling Naruto's temple gently.

"I know he's not going to live for long. But it's Sasuke," he murmurs, as though Sasuke's name explains everything. And in a weird kind of way, it really does.

"Alright, Naruto. Step outside, and wait for me. You can wait in the office. There's water in the fridge, sake in the desk."

-.-.-.-

Naruto does as he's ordered. And the warmth of Sasuke is a tangible weight he misses. And that is a funny thing, because he's only had Sasuke in his arms for minutes. Not for very long. It was perfect though. Absolutely, simply perfect.

It's almost an hour before Tsunade comes out of her office's bedroom. Almost an hour before Naruto hears anything useful. Although he's said hello to both Sakura-chan and Shizune-san.

"Naruto," Tsunade says softly, sitting beside her blond shinobi.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I'm sorry," she sighs. "There was too much damage."

"What?"

"I couldn't save him, Naruto," Tsunade answers. Her voice is soft; sympathetic and consoling. Her hand, calloused and rough, covers Naruto's. It's endearing, and if he wasn't being told that Sasuke was dead, it would have been something that he appreciated.

"No."

"I'm sorry, Naruto."

"He was coming back," Naruto protests softly. "He was coming home."

"He was going to be put to death. This way, he died free. And he died a hero. For you," Tsunade explains softly.

Naruto can only bury his head against Tsunade's shoulder and let himself cry.

"If it's any consolation," she starts softly. Her hand slides through his blond hair slowly, comfortingly. "Sasuke fought to the end. And he wanted to protect you."

"What'd...?"

"Orochimaru and Itachi both wanted to kill you. And that's two very powerful enemies you don't have to deal with or worry about anymore."

"I'd rather have Sasuke," Naruto sighs as he leans into Tsunade's arm.


End file.
